Curriculum for Excellence

[3] This document identified four key purposes of education; those that enable young people to become, "successful learners, confident individuals, responsible citizens and effective contributors."

[4] It is underpinned by "four capacities" – Successful Learners, Confident Individuals, Responsible Citizens and Effective Contributors – which are designed to reflect and recognise the lifelong nature of education and learning.

[4] As stated by Education Scotland, Curriculum for Excellence "is encapsulated in the four capacities - to enable each child or young person to be a successful learner, a confident individual, a responsible citizen and an effective contributor".

The purpose statement issued by Education Scotland claimed that the introduction of Benchmarks was required "to make clear what learners need to know and be able to do to progress through the levels, and to support consistency in teachers’ and other practitioners’ professional judgements".

[11] Before its introduction, many within the Scottish teaching profession, including the teachers' trade union The Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS) and its members,[12] believed that the Curriculum for Excellence was too vague, in particular regarding its supposed 'outcomes and experiences'.

The original concerns led East Renfrewshire, one of the most educationally successful local authorities, to delay implementation of the secondary school phase of the new curriculum by one year.